Tag Archives: head

I have a real thing for fascinators at the moment, apologies if they’re not your cup of tea because you’re likely to see more of them on this blog.

I made this one to smarten up a dress for a wedding reception party. I love the cheeky look a fascinator lends and how it can be both smart and fun.

Fascinating!

Jaunty headgear at a jaunty angle!

What you will need:
A sinamay base (I used a round one from eBay)
Enough felt to cover both sides of your base
2x strips of Organza
2x beads (I chose pearls)
A needle and thread
All purpose glue
A hair comb / slide

How to make the fascinator:

Birds eye view

Place the sinamay base on to your felt and cut round leaving a 2 inch edge for sewing.

Next, place the felt on top of the base and smoothing it down as you go, attach the edge of the felt to the inside of the fascinator base with small stitches in a matching thread. Make sure your stitches don’t go all the way through to the top; you should only sew through the felt at the bottom and the sinamay.

Keep smoothing and attaching all the way around. The last part is tricky and tends to create creases. Be particularly careful; pull the felt taught and use a little all-purpose glue if you need to.

Next, cut a circle slightly smaller than the base, this will sit inside the fascinator to cover up the folds. But before attaching your felt circle, sew on your hair grip. You can use a hair slide or hinged hair clip, whichever stays best for you. Then glue on your circle underneath, making sure you cover all folds and messy bits.

Back of the fascinator

Now for the decoration. This is particularly fun as there are so many things you can do. (Have a look at my Pinterest fascinator board for a few ideas!)

For this one I made a fold of felt and cut the end like a ribbon. To that, I attached two organza flowers using the method I told you about here. I also stitched a pearl button in the centre of each flower for decoration.

That’s it, you’re done.

I’m keen to make a yellow fascinator (I also have a thing for yellow at the moment and think it goes beautifully with blue, which is a staple colour in my wardrobe). I’m also planning to make a couple of crazy hats for Bestival music festival, which is coming up in a couple of months.

The theme is wildlife and I’m planning to wear some pretty massive stag antlers (homemade of course, not real) and a bird’s nest hat complete with a bird and eggs. Cross you fingers they work out!